Friday, June 02, 2006

Customers and the public

As much as I loathe correcting Prairie Pravda, seems that they have difficulty distinguishing between the public sector and the private (though I'm not surprised).In their article about another failed alternative energy program, they state that "the public" paid for idling these ghastly looking wind generators. Well, no they didn't. At least as far as the article is concerned. The headline for the article is "Public paid for idled wind farms" and then state in the first sentence in the article "Xcel Energy electricity customers have paid millions of dollars for wind energy that was never produced, according to documents filed with state regulators." Well kids, customers of a private corporation are not "the public". They are private customers. They pay for the failures of the private corporation, though one heavily regulated. Now, when the government FORCES you to pay for say, pork or corn or wheat or barley NOT produced by farm set asides or subsidies, that's the PUBLIC paying for something not produced.The Twins stadium is the PUBLIC being forced to pay for something they don't consume. Now, if the Twins don't produce a World Series Championship, well then, the PUBLIC is being forced to pay for something not produced. If the consumers of the Twins, namely the fans, paid for the stadium, then they, the consumers of the Twins pay for it all.Wait a minute, isn't that kind of a definition for liberty and freedom? Those that use it pay for it? Those who don't use it aren't forced to pay for it?Yah. It is.Now, go to MN Tea Party and do something for liberty.